Beware of Facebook's Fans & Friends Hype!

[Nadia Janice Brown]

                                                                                    

 

Having a certain number of "fans" or friends on Facebook does not equate to book sales! And, unlike Goodreads, you have no credible way of tracking those who are interested in your books. While I would encourage authors to get as much fans and friends as they can, it is a mistake to think that asking a fellow author (who knows little to nothing about your work) to like your Facebook page will help in the long run in promoting your books.

 

 Your chances of developing a devoted following and garnering book sales is more likely if you targeting your desired audience through ads on Facebook. Doing so over the long run along with providing excerpts of your novel, writings, poems is a much more effective way to market your books.

 

Authors should also promote their books beyond Facebook (or Goodreads) to garner sales for their novels. In other words, how are you capitalizing on the "fans and friends" you do have?

"What do I mean?" you ask.

You should also submit your articles, stories, poems... to online journals, magazines … blogs

Contact book clubs about your novel

You may want to get outside help with marketing your book

Contact libraries, schools, colleges about ordering your book

Get your book in your church store

There are many other things you can do, and once you have success, be sure to ANNOUNCE your news or accomplishments to your fans! Why? Because success breaths success. You will attract avid readers and real fans to you when potential readers can read or hear about you’re your success stories!

 

 

[Lacey Reah]

so true. I was actually getting tired of people saying that facebook is the answer to everything. The time I spent on facebook never amounted to book sales. Now that I'm no longer on facebook, my book sales are the same as they were before. Targeting readers through sites that cater to people who like to read or who are interested in my genre has worked much better. Twitter seems to work better for me, however.

[Selina Xu]

Your audience is the world. And your portal to them are the bloggers and reviewers all over the internet! 

Send out requests to many bloggers (depending on the target audience of your novel: MG/YA/Adult), then the ones who are interested will read it and review it. If your books are good and the reviews are raving, the readers of their blogs would naturally want to read your book. 

This is the best way of cultivating readership. Another way to speed it up would be by holding a blog tour. Find book blogs that are willing to have you on for an interview/guest post etc. The word will spread and a strong fanbase will slowly be created. 

Hope this helps! 

Sel from Bookcase to Heaven™

[Lacey Reah]

Patrena, what is your book about?

[River Urke]

Thank you, I needed to hear that.  :)

[Irina Shapiro]

Thank you.  I think you are absolutely right.  We are all so obsessed with these social media sites that we don't realize that all these "likes" add up to nothing.  It's nice to have fans, but only if they are genuinely interested in your work and not just "liking" you because you liked them.  I have actually tried advertising on FB and didn't see any surge in sales.  Advertising on Goodreads was more productive.  Their rates are very reasonable and there was a definate increase in sales.  My books only come in e-book format, so I would love some more ideas on where I can promote my books.  Are there any other sites you would recommend?

Irina Shapiro

www.irinashapiro.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Irina-Shapiro/307374895948375